Part II. Marketing in the service industry

Task 1. Read the text and answer the question below.

1. What is the basic definition of marketing?

2. What is the main aim / goal of marketing?

3. What is the marketing mix (the 4 P's of marketing)?

4. Which aspect does each element of the marketing mix stand for?

Marketing

Marketing is the process of planning, designing, pricing, promoting and distributing ideas, goods and services, in order to satisfy customer needs, so as to make a profit.

To make a business successful it is necessary to follow some marketing rules. The so-called Marketing Mix is the most vital among them. There are the four P's of the marketing mix:

Product: deciding what to sell.

Price: deciding what prices to charge.

Place: deciding how the product will be distributed and where people will buy it.

Promotion: deciding how the product will be supported with advertising, special activities, etc.

A 5th P which is sometimes added is packaging: all the materials used to protect and present a product before it is sold.

The four P’s are a useful summary of the marketing mix, the activities that you have to combine successfully in order to sell. To market a product is to make a plan based on this combination and put it into action. A market manager or marketer is someone who works in this area.

Task 2. Read the second part of the article about marketing and answer the questions.

1. Which of the four P's are mentioned here?

2. Does the author think the four P's are a complete definition of marketing?

3. Does the author think that marketing is only for marketers?

What is Marketing?

Most people and many managers do not understand the role of marketing in modern business. Marketing is two things.

First, it is a strategy and set of techniques to sell an organization’s products or services. This involved choosing target customers and designing a persuasive marketing mix to get them to buy. The mix may include a range of brands, tempting prices, convenient sales outlets and a battery of advertising and promotions. This concept of marketing as selling and persuasion is by far the most popular idea among both managers and the public.

The second, and by far more important concept of marketing, focuses on improving the reality of what is on offer. It is based on understanding customers’ needs and developing new solutions which are better than those currently available. Doing this is not a marketing department problem, but one which involves the whole organization.

Creating company-wide focus on the customer requires the continual acquisition of new skills and technology. Marketing is rarely effective as a business function. As the chief executive of HP put it: 'Marketing is too important to leave to the marketing department'. Such companies understand that everybody's task is marketing. This concept of marketing offering real customer value is what business is all about.

Task 3. Read the article and explain the difference between the traditional and the service marketing mix.